Primary students return to regular classes on Wednesday after two years

Classes at the primary level will be held six days a week from Wednesday as the schedule returns to normal almost two years into the pandemic.

The Directorate of Primary Education instructed the education institutions to open the classes for the first to fifth grades in two shifts after a six-week closure.

Director General Alamgir Mohammad Mansurul Alam on Tuesday said: “The primary students will attend regular classes as the COVID infections dropped. Classes will be held in separate shifts to maintain the health rules.”

Authorities will decide on resuming pre-primary classes after observing the infection rate for two more weeks.

“The pre-primary classrooms will be prepared in the meantime… doubts about whether children will follow mask mandate or the health rules are delaying the return to classes.”

Bangladesh shut down all educational institutions in Mar 2020 following the outbreak of the disease.

After more than a year and a half of closure amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bangladesh reopened schools in September last year.

The fifth-grade students attended daily classes and the others a day every week.

Efforts to add more classes every week were abandoned when the omicron variant caused a spike in the infection rate. Educational institutions were bolted again in January.